41 replies to this topic

[logical2u]

If you absolutely positively need to chat to someone in five minutes or less, why not use MSN, AIM, Xfire, Steam chat, IRC, Email, etc?

... just sayin'.
A flood control on PMs is perfectly reasonable (obviously the duration is up to debate) in my opinion.

[RaiDK]

Because not everyone has their MSN, AIM, Xfire, Steam chat, IRC, Email, etc public.

[Dauth]

Ask for it?

Also we've left it at the default value, no doubt it will be changed in the future, we're also going to be looking out for feedback on other forums to see if this is an effective measure against the bots.

[Lizzie]

logical2u, on 23 Apr 2009, 21:13, said:

If you absolutely positively need to chat to someone in five minutes or less, why not use MSN, AIM, Xfire, Steam chat, IRC, Email, etc?

... just sayin'.
A flood control on PMs is perfectly reasonable (obviously the duration is up to debate) in my opinion.

Because not everyone has their MSN public, and somtimes they don't even have it at all.
Hell you yourself have said you don't give out your MSN so freely I believe.

Dauth, on 24 Apr 2009, 3:24, said:

Ask for it?

Like I said above, somtimes they don't even have MSN in the first place, and it's not just like you can ask them to get it just for that occasion.

---

Alternatively you can use the IRC channel we have. Lord knows it could use more activity.

Still, 5 minutes is way too long to wait to send another PM.

[CodeCat]

If you want to have a convo there's IRC. That's what it's there for.

[WNxMastrefubu]

how would we tell them to get on IRC if we have to wait 5 minutes to talk again

ex:(person 1) howd u make that unit
(person 2) what part of it, because alot went into it


5 minutes later............(person 1) get on IRC...

i find it jst a wee bit rediculous, i hav an xfire, and no msn or anything else, thats the only way i can possibly talk to some people.

[JJ]

What if you need to send PMs to several people at once? I, as a mod leader, sometimes need to do that. MSN just isn't "formal" enough. There are also other cases, like maybe someone from the ROTR RP need to PM his team mates.

[BeefJeRKy]

JJ brings up a good point Dauth. Can you set a post count requirement for this? 5 would be good or maybe 10.

[CommanderJB]

If I'm not wrong that's already been implemented, and the system will be further examined.

[Alias]

To be honest a better way of implementing this is to simply disable the PM system until a certain (minimal) amount of posts is achieved, say ten. Enough to recognise that it is not a bot, but little enough that it isn't a pest to users.

[CommanderJB]

Apologies, that's what I believe has already been implemented rather than just flood control, though I may be wrong. It's certainly been done on some of the other boards affected, though IPB have released a patch which will hopefully fix the problem anyway.

[Dauth]

OK I shall clear this up for you once and for all.

We are leaving it at 5 mins until we have some feedback on changing it. I imagine in the future it will be close to 1 minute.
Making an auto change for someone's post count is an awfully large amount of work, work we are not interested in doing for such a small gain.

The patch was the implementation of PM flood control.
The other work by IPB is working on the software for the IP.Board version 3, which is currently undergoing a beta testing phase. We have enough problems with bugs to avoid inviting more by using incomplete software.

[CommanderJB]

Apologies for the confusion, Dauth.

[Libains]

Alias, on 26 Apr 2009, 8:21, said:

To be honest a better way of implementing this is to simply disable the PM system until a certain (minimal) amount of posts is achieved, say ten. Enough to recognise that it is not a bot, but little enough that it isn't a pest to users.

Not a good idea, imo, as I frequently receive messages from new users who are looking for help or similar with various installations of mods - without that facility it would prove a lot more frustrating for them. Just because you're new doesn't mean you should lose a privilege such as this - which can be vital for new users for all reasons - some will even likely sign up to use the PM service.

However, I am not a fan of this flood control either. At all. As the ECA general in the RotR roleplay thread - I have a need to contact multiple members on a daily basis - I'm having to spend over half an hour now messaging the various members of my team. I would happily see that time reduced to 1 minute asap. I can understand the reasoning behind this - but nonetheless it seems like this was a little severe.

[BeefJeRKy]

Indeed, this gives me an unfair advantage over AJ in the RP

[Alias]

AJ, on 27 Apr 2009, 17:31, said:

Alias, on 26 Apr 2009, 8:21, said:

To be honest a better way of implementing this is to simply disable the PM system until a certain (minimal) amount of posts is achieved, say ten. Enough to recognise that it is not a bot, but little enough that it isn't a pest to users.

Not a good idea, imo, as I frequently receive messages from new users who are looking for help or similar with various installations of mods - without that facility it would prove a lot more frustrating for them. Just because you're new doesn't mean you should lose a privilege such as this - which can be vital for new users for all reasons - some will even likely sign up to use the PM service.

What is wrong with publicly asking for help? You get a lot wider range of support along with a more secure answer. If making it 'private' is so important, most people of importance either have an MSN/Email public and as such are able to be contacted even if it needs to be 'private'.

AJ, on 27 Apr 2009, 17:31, said:

However, I am not a fan of this flood control either. At all. As the ECA general in the RotR roleplay thread - I have a need to contact multiple members on a daily basis - I'm having to spend over half an hour now messaging the various members of my team. I would happily see that time reduced to 1 minute asap. I can understand the reasoning behind this - but nonetheless it seems like this was a little severe.

I think it would be fine to drop it to one minute, as long as the post restriction is applied as well.

[Libains]

Alias, on 27 Apr 2009, 8:46, said:

AJ, on 27 Apr 2009, 17:31, said:

Alias, on 26 Apr 2009, 8:21, said:

To be honest a better way of implementing this is to simply disable the PM system until a certain (minimal) amount of posts is achieved, say ten. Enough to recognise that it is not a bot, but little enough that it isn't a pest to users.

Not a good idea, imo, as I frequently receive messages from new users who are looking for help or similar with various installations of mods - without that facility it would prove a lot more frustrating for them. Just because you're new doesn't mean you should lose a privilege such as this - which can be vital for new users for all reasons - some will even likely sign up to use the PM service.

What is wrong with publicly asking for help? You get a lot wider range of support along with a more secure answer. If making it 'private' is so important, most people of importance either have an MSN/Email public and as such are able to be contacted even if it needs to be 'private'.

I don't diasgree with the fact that it's better to ask things publicly. However, I can't determine what people do, or what they want, I simply pointed out that i have seen a lot of new users using the messenger where they did not want to use the public forums. Plus, some people do choose to hide their MSN/email/etc on here. I think it's a useful additional tool and by adding a restriction on to it you'll limit it's use by a lot of new users. If it's limited by time, it'll still make bots far more catchable, but won't be detrimental to new users.